l good workmen he felt a pride and an interest in all the jobs
he took in hand. His sense of responsibility and his sensitiveness,
indeed, were almost too great at times for his own personal comfort.
Things WILL go wrong now and then, even with the greatest care;
well-planned undertakings will not always pay, and the best engineering
does not necessarily succeed in earning a dividend; but whenever such
mishaps occurred to his employers, Telford felt the disappointment much
too keenly, as though he himself had been to blame for their
miscalculations or over-sanguine hopes. Still, it is a good thing to
put one's heart in one's work, and so much Thomas Telford certainly did.

About this time, too, the rising young mason began to feel that he must
get a little more accurate scientific knowledge. The period for
general study had now passed by, and the period for special trade
reading had set in. This was well. A lad cannot do better than lay a
good foundation of general knowledge and general literature during the
period when he is engaged in forming his mind: a young man once fairly
launched in life may safely confine himself for a time to the studies
that bear directly upon his own special chosen subject. The thing that
Telford began closely to investigate was--lime. Now, lime makes
mortar; and without lime, accordingly, you can have no mason. But to
know anything really about lime, Telford found he must read some
chemistry; and to know anything really about chemistry he must work at
it hard and unremittingly. A strict attention to one's own business,
understood in this very broad and liberal manner, is certainly no bad
thing for any struggling handicraftsman, whatever his trade or
profession may happen to be.

In 1786, when Telford was nearly thirty, a piece of unexpected good
luck fell to his lot. And yet it was not so much good luck as due
recognition of his sterling qualities by a wealthy and appreciative
person. Long before, while he was still in Eskdale, one Mr. Pulteney,
a man of social importance, who had a large house in the bleak northern
valley, had asked his advice about the repairs of his own mansion. We
may be sure that Telford did his work on that occasion carefully and
well; for now, when Mr. Pulteney wished to restore the ruins of
Shrewsbury Castle as a dwelling-house, he sought out the young mason
who had attended to his Scotch property, and asked him to superintend
the proposed alterations in